64 In Pursuit of the Trout 



has been observable in the open water from 

 sunrise to sunset. In hot summer days, 

 when there is not a speck of cloud in the sky, 

 and when the garish sunlight pervades the 

 stream, fishing in the ordinary way is usually 

 quite profitless. Grayling, it is true, may 

 frequently be taken at such times, but what 

 dry-fly fisherman who is after trout will care 

 to work through the heat and burden of the 

 day for Salmo thymallus ? It is just at these 

 hopeless times that big trout may frequently 

 be found feeding under the trees and amid 

 the bushes. Indeed, my experience is that 

 fish which haunt such spots are on the rise 

 more or less all day, morning, noon, and 

 evening. One of the chief attractions of dry- 

 fly fishing is the fact that the angler is in so 

 many cases able to see the whole performance, 

 and to note in detail the habits and move- 

 ments of the trout. In dibbing, or in casting 

 in wooded places with a very short line, the 

 angler sees with great clearness, as a rule, the 

 fish he is stalking. Sometimes he is within 

 a yard of his prey, suffering a zephyr breeze 



